Getting off the fence

As an old, hardcore orthodox Catholic, I have been loyally subscribing to Malta’s Catholic newspaper Il-Leħen for many, many years. It was originally known as the formidable Il-Leħen is-Sewwa and was first published in 1928, making it the oldest newspaper in Malta.

I jokingly quip that its name was changed as the perpetrators who amputated the title must have been embarrassed of its glorious past in fighting Marxism and its offshoot Socialism in the 1960s. Sadly, this country too often seems indifferent to honouring its tradition and history.

Despite the cosmetic change, and unsurprisingly, Il-Leħen is the only printed newspaper in Malta that unfairly does not receive subsidies from our turbo-capitalistic, socialist government.

In the issue of Sunday, October 26, a short and hard-hitting ‘Letter to the editor’ caught my attention. It was written by the indomitable Emily Barbaro Sant, who constantly champions what is right and good.

In her letter, she drew readers’ attention to a recent court judgment where a Japanese national resident in Malta was severely punished with a two-year prison sentence and a €15,000 fine for animal cruelty. She rightly comments on how this sentence stands in stark contrast to punishments meted out to women caught carrying out the heinous crime of abortion.

In Malta, it seems that ‘Animal lives matter’ but ‘Human life in the womb does not matter’. Meanwhile, there was no outrage at the criminalisation of those who indulge in animal cruelty.

Compare this absence of interest and concern with that of the vigorous reaction from the predictable hysterical quarters when women face the courts over accusations of procuring abortions.

In these cases, pro-abortion activists, abetted by various sectors of the media, then lobby

vociferously for the decriminalisation of abortion. Added to that, we have had to put up with waffling statements from our prime minister who expressed deep concern at the current situation in Malta where abortion is criminalised.

This should not be surprising from a person who leads an administration that tried to introduce abortion by stealth some two years ago. Unfortunately, our dear prime minister was allowed a face-saving legal adjustment to his proposed law.

When one witnesses how laws are upheld in Malta, one cannot but sympathise with a comment I read in another first-rate Catholic publication, the New Oxford Review that is based in Berkley, California.

In his article on government corruption in Japan, the author, Jason M. Morgan comments on human rights remarking: “that like in other countries, judges here do not need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

In our modern world, animal rights are being rightly forcefully promoted and upheld more and more. Yet, on the other hand, the rights of life in the womb are being torn to shreds.

The time for pussyfooting is long over- Klaus Vella Bardon

I have first experience of this glaring contradiction. When pro-life activists challenged the spurious claim that the morning-after pill was not just a contraceptive but also a potential abortifacient, the court case dragged on for over four years and the judge dismissed our case on a technicality. We appealed this disgraceful judgment but, due to a legal glitch, the appeal was not done within the necessary time frame.

Needless to say, most people despair over presenting their cases in court and have no faith in justice being served. They have good reason. One just needs to see the frequent foot dragging, incompetence and unbelievable failings when the grave issues of government corruption are handled in this country.

Finally, we have the ridiculous performance of Peppi Azzopardi trying to emulate the Life Action founder and president Lila Rose and the late Charlie Kirk in facing up to a team of highly belligerent and aggressive young people screeching for the decriminalisation of abortion. Peppi has good intentions and has defended many worthy causes but he lacks consistency over the issue of human rights.

He seemed clueless over the link between crime and punishment as he is vehemently against imprisonment as a crime deterrent. His arguments are also crippled by the fact that he is confusingly inconsistent as he wrongly believes that divorce and same-sex marriage are human rights.

In this miserable scenario, one hopes that, at least, the Catholic Church will remain fearlessly up front in defending life. It is long overdue that all pro-life groups are recognised and that our archbishop openly emulates other Christian groups and demands Catholics to get off the fence and publicly fight the scourge of abortion.

It is a shame that many Catholic organisations and even Catholic leaders are too often conspicuous by their absence in public rallies that fight for the life of the unborn.

The time for pussyfooting and pusillanimity is long over. As the legendary Mother Teresa said in Washington DC in 1994: “I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And, if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”

Klaus Vella Bardon is a Catholic activist.